SLD Intros: Jenny August
Tell us a bit about you and your background!
Hi, my name is Jenny and I’m the Maths Adviser in SLD. I grew up in the north-east of Scotland where I spent most of my time swimming, not just in pools but also in rivers and lochs across Scotland with the wonderfully named Ye Ancient Amphibious Bathing Association (YeAABA).
When the time came to choose what I wanted to study at university, I struggled deciding between history and maths but in the end, I realised I couldn’t deal with the endless essays in history and went to study maths at the University of Edinburgh.
Turns out that was a great decision, as nine years later I had a PhD in mathematics (at the intersection of abstract algebra and geometry) and was still eager to continue. Since then, I’ve worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Germany and Denmark, and have travelled all across Europe and beyond for maths! However, the part of my job I most enjoyed was teaching, and so I recently decided to leave the research behind and got a position with SLD as the maths adviser.
What is your job and what does it involve?
My role is Maths Adviser, which means I’m responsible for providing maths support to students from across the entire university. This doesn’t just include the mathematicians, physicists, engineers and all the subjects you’d typically associate with maths, but literally any student who has a mathematical problem they need help with – no matter how small!
Over the exam period, my time was mostly spent meeting students at either drop-ins or one-to-one appointments, where my brain got a great workout trying to answer all the many and varied maths questions they had. Now that exams are over, I’ve got time to work on developing online resources and building collaborations with lecturers to get more maths help embedded into courses. This has been a great way to explore campus and meet lots of interesting people across the university.
What are your favourite aspects of your job and your biggest passion project?
At the moment, I’m really enjoying that I’m constantly learning. I only started in the job a few months ago, and since then I’ve already got to see how maths is used across many different subjects – sometimes in very surprising ways! But I also very much enjoy meeting and working with so many different students, and trying to find different ways to explain things to suit each one. Longer term, my biggest project is to try to help people struggling with maths anxiety – everyone should be given the support, space and tools to help boost their confidence with maths!
Outwith work, what are your favourite things to do?
I still enjoy swimming but in the past few years, I’ve also started doing much more cycling, helped by the nice weather in Germany and the flat landscape in Denmark. I’ve become quite attached to my bike (which I’ve had about 20 years) although it would be fair to say that not much of the original has survived!
Exercise, though, is really just an excuse to bake, and then eat, very chocolatey things. And it’s even better when this coincides with board games with friends, reading a good murder mystery or playing silly video games on my Switch.
Before you go, what’s your one tip for succeeding in study/university/research/the workplace?
My biggest piece of advice is to speak to your classmates/colleagues. It can feel daunting and scary, but it makes the world of difference to have people to talk to who are facing the same academic struggles or successes as you. When things are hard, it’s very easy to feel stupid if you don’t realise that everyone else is finding it hard too! And even the successes are better with people around you - maths is often thought of as a solitary subject, but my most enjoyable moments by far have been working as a group to solve problems!
Written by Dr Jenny August, Maths Adviser